Sonia Akilov

Sonia Akilov is the Founder and Managing Partner of Unified Immigration Lawyers PC (formerly Matkowsky Immigration Law). As a dual-licensed attorney practicing in Canada and the U.S., she advises individuals, families, and Fortune 500 companies on a broad spectrum of cross-border immigration matters, delivering sophisticated legal strategies for even the most challenging cases.

Sonia holds a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science, Law & Society from York University. Prior to founding Unified Immigration Lawyers, she practiced with two of Canada’s largest and most prestigious immigration law firms—Green and Spiegel and KPMG Law—where she gained extensive experience representing multinational corporations and individual clients.

As a litigator and strategist, Sonia has cultivated a specialized practice focused on highly complex immigration matters. She works closely with clients to develop robust legal strategies to overcome temporary and permanent residence refusals. 

Her core areas of expertise include:

• Corporate & Business Immigration: Delivering strategic compliance counsel to start-ups and multinational corporations, securing work permits, and facilitating seamless cross-border mobility for executive leadership.
• Appeals & Judicial Reviews: Judicial reviews at the Federal Court, sponsorship appeals and residency obligation appeals before the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD).
• Inadmissibility Matters: criminal and medical inadmissibility, and misrepresentation matters.
• Complex Interventions: Procedural fairness letter (PFL) responses, reconsideration requests, and mandamus applications.
• U.S. Immigration: Advising on U.S. work visas, employment-based and family-based green cards, and waivers of inadmissibility.

As Founder and Managing Partner of Unified Immigration Lawyers PC, Sonia is committed to providing thoughtful, personalized representation grounded in a practical understanding of both the Canadian and U.S. immigration systems. Her advocacy has secured life-changing results for clients and helped shape Canadian immigration jurisprudence. In Toki v. Canada (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship), 2017 FC 606, she secured a decision establishing that when a refusal will result in a misrepresentation finding and a five-year ban, an officer must provide more than general concerns in a procedural fairness letter. Other notable Federal Court decisions Sonia argued include Gill v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2017 FC 792.